It’s done.  The term.  Two more graduate classes.  My final projects!  One of which I am incredibly excited about, even after turning it in.  That’s a good sign.

For your viewing pleasure, Caldera Resort & Spa, in Mammoth Lakes, California, catering to the outdoor sports/mani-pedi pampering enthusiast.  

(FOR LARGER IMAGES try here.)

Outdoor adventurers taking a respite from busy city life will find every outlet to the recreational amenities of Mammoth Lakes from their Home Base at Caldera Resort and Spa.  Sleek, sparkling and rejuvenating private suites, made whole by way of hot-spring sourced hot tubs integrated with each guesthouse, will provide the perfect ambiance to rest up to readiness for the next day’s activities, be it skiing, hiking, climbing, biking, fishing or backpacking.  Healthful, nourishing, but most importantly, delectable organic breakfasts and snacks are accessible in the on-site cafe and breakfast lounge.  Not least of all, spa services are just a few steps away in state-of-the-art facilities that can accommodate for every indulgence.  

Magnificent, unobstructed views of the surrounding volcanically active mountains set the tone for this resort.  South-facing, wide and accommodating windows bring light and beauty of the wilderness into each room, providing warmth in the starkness of winter, and just enough sun to wake one up to summer mornings.  The interior space takes another nod from the surrounding geography that is roughly hewn from ice flows and volcanic activity ages past.  Crystalline rock, like the inside of a geode, but polished to a bright and incredibly smooth finish serve as various planes.  These are accented by dramatic dimensional rock/crystal formations, and embedded with glimmering lights to create the feel of naturally-formed cave-like dwellings within the stars, dark, deep and cozy, yet brilliant and luxurious - an abode of earthen glamor.  Minimal, organic fixtures emerge from the rock itself, not to distract from the sculptural beauty of the structures themselves. Furnishings and accents provide contrasting but complementary textures, soft and lush, light-as-air, adding to the sanctuary-like environment of Caldera Resort and Spa. 

Here are a few new loose sketches, for the sake of practice!  These are all based on photos I’ve taken or on perspectives outside of my house.

From a photo in Javéa, Spain.

From a photo in Lyle, Washington.

From a photo in Javéa, Spain.

A view from my dining room to the back yard.

A photo from a mountaintop near Javéa, Spain.  These were granaries several hundred years old in age.  A few had been turned into modernized residences inside.  The view down to the coastal city, and the encircling mountains around was astounding!  And those are, of course, giant aloe vera plants in the foreground.

My next project is an exhibit space for a pretty bad ass little helmet camera for the true adrenaline-junkie-adventurers amongst us.  

Let’s just say it’s very much inspired by video feeds, and this:

A few days ago, I submitted my final drawings for “Inland”.  

“Inland” refers to the bay-area setting, and the conceptual and pragmatic choice to inlay the house into the land itself.  

A reminder of the design intentions:

“Inland.”

This guest house addition to a bay-front home in Tiburon, California near San Francisco is the epitome of rustic sophistication.  Intersecting quadrants and a multi-layered, inset hill-side approach make this space feel larger than it is, providing the family with an accommodating, multi-purpose, stand-alone addition to serve out-of-town visitors, pool party guests, and daily family recreation.

Natural, hardy materials will pull the view of the bay’s surrounding mountains into the space.  Impressions of local flora and fauna will contribute to the natural, rustic, but lush feel of this bay-front addition by way of a leopard-shark inspired pool-floor mosaic, foliage-adorned upholstery, a fern-inspired bathroom mural/wallpaper, and other accents.  Large, responsive windows and spacious decks will provide optimal views from both inside and out.  Additional skylights and a westward facing orientation will optimize light for a comfortable, and beautiful interior environment.

And, a living roof which hosts native plant and animal life serves functional and aesthetic purposes.  Flooding, accumulated solar radiation and some loss of habitat are all avoided through the preservation of the hillside on the guest house roof.  Aesthetically, the living roof will cause the mostly-sunken guest house to blend further into the surrounding site so as to preserve an undistracted view from the main house.

There are always things to fix and improve upon the next time.  But, standing where I stand, I feel pretty proud of the result:  this project is my first full exterior-interior design with a full set of presentation drawings.  

If you were to print out this floor plan and the one below, layering them on top of one another precisely, you would see how the top floor and second floor intersect and their floors/ceilings.  The dashed line in front of the kitchen area, seen in the floor plan below, is an indicator of where the deck above would be situated in relation to it.

You can a section indicator (top right) in the “First-Floor Plan”, which corresponds to the drawing below.  A “section” is a cross-section of a floor plan but in an elevation view-point, which means, essentially, head-on with walls and floors visible.  

In this case, the cross-section travels across the longest length of the top story, depicting the children’s corner, the living room, then hallway/atrium with main entrance, built-in book case, and then bathroom.  

A technical section would show even more detail than this, like floor joists and whatever composes the ceiling and walls.    

Here are several small interior elevations including the kitchen/wet-bar, children’s area and guest bedroom, all requirements of the project program ( the word “program” in interior architecture/design is used to describe the set of “problems” that require creative solutions).

See more after the jump…

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One task I had this week was to design a personal studio space.  We were asked to go through several of the design process phases in a very short amount of time.  

Bubble diagramming helps the designer think through the way spaces connect to one another, how those spaces will be affected by light and noise, in what ways various spaces can become more efficient when closer in proximity, how users will flow through a space that has both public and private areas, and many other factors.

This bit of the process is really fun because it can help you to see outside of a box, literally.  Many times a rectangle or a square comes to mind first when visualizing the use of space.  As you can see here, this was my error.  My instructor reminded me to try to move past the assumption of a rectangle.  When done well, the bubble diagrams are just circles connected by lines.  No walls, doors or windows to limit potential innovation.  While I came up with certain valuable insights from my bubble diagrams below for the project at hand, I am curious what more I might have discovered had I been more purposeful about leaving the rectangular shape behind.

Brainstorming design concepts in very quick sketch form.  This is a great area of practice for me as I tend to be rather perfectionistic in my approach.  Loose, curious sketches not only help the design process along, they also can develop an artistic style which brings a unique feel to a designer’s work.  

In this case, I wanted to go for a “greenhouse reading room”.  The structure of the building is primarily glass, iron framing, and stucco or earth for accent walls.  The furniture is primarily natural woods, metal and glass, keeping the palette in black, steel and heather grays, and mid-tone browns.  Structural walls are a warm white to keep the space bright and clean.  Some deep color comes in through tribal pattern rugs, and accessories and artwork with geometric but organic detailing.  Terrariums, giant fig trees in baskets, and ferns would bring the outdoors further inside, and provide a sense of lush tranquility.

Inspirational images for this project:

(pinterest)

(pinterest)

(pinterest)

Moving towards schematics.  The plan view delineates the layout of space.  My rectangle, below.  :)

After scanning this image, I added some hardwood floors in the main area, and used some design markers to add a bit of color to the drawing.  I didn’t really like how the color turned out - it seemed a bit distracting.  I think I used a bit too much, and needed to be more subtle with the application.  So I will print this out, add in the floors again, and try reapplying some color in a more effective way.

Exterior elevations.  These drawings can be really fun because of how the design concept from the interior space travels to the outside structure of the building as well.  There can be a disconnect between these two things sometimes.  

Here you can see the front profile of the glass roofed building with stucco accent walls. There are subtle impressions of the outdoor flora, without it becoming too much of a distraction.  I took a nod from a fellow classmate’s work who used simple applications of color very effectively.  Her drawings have an air of confidence that I would like to further understand, but for now this was good practice.

(You may notice I have a typo in my drawing title.  This should say “E. External Elevation.”  Whoops!)

And here are interior sections of the drawing/computer station area.  Glass roof is above.  I can just totally imagine working in this space.  Whether the sun is out, filtering down into the studio through the trees above (as I tend to automatically assume anything is surrounded by beautiful trees, as I think every place should be), or if it is raining, pouring, storming, this would be a beautiful, tranquil place of inspiration to me.

I really enjoyed applying color to this section. There are subtle details to highlight, and a lot to let stand in it’s own as well.

And here, a elevation of the kitchenette area, complete with refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker, and plenty of storage. 

After I finish a project, I always feel inclined to sit down and rework it from the beginning.  I suppose that’s a good sign of being in charge of one’s own learning!  ;)  

In this case I’m fairly happy with the result.  But, then I know that this concept is my little baby, and I plan to continue evolving and refining it for the foreseeable future!